Joss Whedon on Killing an Avenger

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Plus, why Loki won't be in The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

By Max Nicholson

It's no secret that writer-director Joss Whedon likes to tease about killing off his characters -- and he's even been known to do it from time to time, like he most recently did with Agent Coulson in Marvel's The Avengers. (Of course, true to comic book form, Coulson will soon be resurrected on the small screen in ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) But what about the Whedon-directed sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron? Is every Avenger safe, or is no superhero impervious to death?

"I'm always joking about [death]," Whedon explained in a recent interview with EW.com. As for killing off an Avenger, the filmmaker added, "Um... maybe? But I'd have to have a really good reason, a really great sequence for [Marvel executives] to go, 'We'll cut off a potential franchise, that's fine!' They know, as any good studio does, that without some stakes, some real danger, how involved can we get? We don't just rule it out across the board, but neither is the mission statement 'Who can we kill?' We try to build the story organically and go, 'How hard can we make it on these people?'"

As for the possible return of Tom Hiddleston's Loki, Whedon remained steadfast that Ultron would succeed the trickster god. "Every movie is going to be a different villain," Whedon said. "Loki's awesome, and he is awesome in Thor 2. But The Avengers is a different thing. I worked with Tom more than any other actor [in the last film], because he was the only villain and there were six heroes. And he was as great as anyone I've ever worked with, and I get why people loved the character. But it's an Avengers movie."

Marvel's The Avengers: Age of Ultron is currently slated for a May 1, 2015 release.

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love by following @Max_Nicholson on Twitter, or MaxNicholson on IGN.